Winterizing Your Outboard Motor

When storing your boat and outboard motor during the colder months, it’s important to winterize it beforehand, as this will help it to remain in top condition. You’ll need outboard motor oil (Evinrude XD 100, Yamalube 2S, Yamalube 2M, whatever your preferred brand is), an oil filter, a water hose, gas treatment, and grease for the lower unit. The first step is to hook your hose up and combine the gas treatment with a gallon of gasoline. Run the treatment through the engine until the motor stops, it often takes about 20 minutes. When this is complete, drain the motor oil, remove the oil filter, and replace the filter and the oil. Next drain the lower unit grease, and replace it, you should also grease the prop shaft.

The last step is to grease the wheels of your trailer so they don’t seize up or freeze during the cold weather. Congratulations, you’ve successfully winterized your outboard motor!

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Two Strokes: Yamaha vs. Mercury

Yamaha and Mercury are two leading manufacturers of outboard motors, and both offer quality products that tend to be a solid investment. However, in some circumstances, such as two stroke motors, one brand shines over the other. Yamaha two stroke motors are renowned for their longevity, despite Mercury offering a more powerful motor. The parts for Yamaha motors are a bit more expensive, but because they almost never give out, you won’t be replacing parts often, if at all. In addition, the Yamaha two stroke is one of the highest ranked outboard motors amongst users.

Whether you use Yamaha’s Yamalube oil, or Mercury oil, either brand will work in these outboard motors. The stigma that you must use a particular brand’s oil in the corresponding motor is mostly used to boost sales, though there are some circumstances in which it’s true, however this is more dependent on how the outboard motor is used by the owner.

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Yamalube 2M vs. 2W

Yamalube oils offer unrivaled quality and ensure that your engine remains in excellent condition throughout its lifespan. However, when it comes to comparing two Yamalube oils, like Yamalube 2M oil and Yamalube 2W oil, it’s not so easy to make a distinction. When selecting a Yamalube oil for your engine, first consider the kind of engine you have, and how you will be using it. For example, the Yamalube 2W oil contains large amounts of metallic additives, which is necessary for the constantly changing RPMs on a personal watercraft. Yamalube 2M is more designed for outboard motors, and is intended for use in extreme engine conditions, such as rapid acceleration in sports boats, or trolling on fishing boats.

Different formulations of outboard motor oil are intended to be used during different engine conditions. It’s also wise to check with the manufacturer of your engine and ensure that the kind of oil you are using will not void its warranty.

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Benefits of Yamalube 2-S Oil

The Yamalube brand of motor oil for use in snowmobiles, ATVs, and motorcycles has a number of unique benefits that conventional motor oils do not. Yamaha formulated their Yamalube 2S oil to withstand intense conditions, and help to preserve the longevity of the engine. Here are a few of the more well documented benefits of Yamalube 2S oil:

~Low Smoke – Yamalube 2S oil can reduce visible smoke by up to 50%; meaning less smoke when starting up and moving.

~Reduce Engine Wear – by using special additives, carbon build-up in the engine can be reduced by up to 40%, translating into extended engine life and better performance.

~All-Weather Performance – Yamalube 2S oil contains an additive to help maintain liquidity and prevent gelling in freezing conditions.

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Fuel Efficiency with Yamaha WaveRunners

Yamaha is the leading manufacturer of personal watercraft in the world, and has taken great effort to design fuel efficient and clean burning engines. The Yamaha WaveRunner brand of personal watercraft has changed the face of the industry, with newer models capable of saving consumers hundreds of dollars each year in fuel costs compared to competitor models. The WaveRunner offers this kind of fuel efficiency without sacrificing speed due to Yamaha’s innovative engine design. Yamaha 2W oil is the company’s specially formulated brand of motor oil for use in their WaveRunner personal watercraft; this motor oil combined with WaveRunner engine technology allow for increased fuel efficiency and longevity.

Yamaha designs several different WaveRunner models, with most having higher top speeds than competitor models despite consuming less gallons of gasoline per hour of use. Some WaveRunner models also offer performance level quality and run on regular unleaded gasoline.

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Purchasing Motor Oil in Bulk

When purchasing motor oil by the drum, it’s important to be aware of a few key factors. First, recognize that as with most items purchased in bulk, it is possible to receive a discount when purchasing bulk oil. However, you wouldn’t want to purchase oil in bulk unless you intend to use it; oil drums are difficult to store (they’re heavy and unwieldy). Another common misconception about purchasing oil in bulk is in regards to purchasing online; often customers think that shipping on an oil drum will be extremely expensive and not worth it. However, depending on where you’re ordering your oil drum from, it can be in the moderate price range of about $30-40 for shipping. Since you’re probably spending a few hundred on the drum itself, if you have use for this much oil and find a good deal, it’s probably worth it.

You can purchase oil in drums from the manufacturers, or from various vendors at their physical stores, or online.

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Potential Dangers of an Oil Spill

It’s a near catastrophic event when marine life are affected by an oil spill. Both mineral and synthetic oils are harmful to the marine environment because they can coat marine animals with the sticky oil substance, hindering their movement and respiration, and also an oil spill blocks sunlight from entering the water, and can harm photosynthetic life like plants and algae. When an oil spill occurs, it can take weeks or even months of effort to remove the oil from the water, and years to repair the damage to marine life that results from an oil spill. Bulk motor oil spills are particularly dangerous, though small oil spills have the same effect on a smaller scale.

Whether you’re driving a twenty foot watercraft or a commercial supertanker, taking precautions to prevent oil leakage from both the engine or in some cases the cargo will prevent significant damage to aquatic life.

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Checking Boat Engine Oil

Checking the oil level in your outboard motor is a simple process, but it can nonetheless be confusing if you’ve never done it before. In addition to having the proper amount of oil in your motor, it’s also important to check the quality of the oil. Begin by pulling out the oil dipstick, and wipe off the engine oil with a light colored rag. Put the dipstick back in, then immediately pull it out. Compare the oil on the end of the dipstick with that against the rag, noting the quality and if there are any particles of dirt or grit. You want your boat motor oil to be a caramel color; if it is black it might require changing.

To check the oil level in the engine, simply note the place on your dipstick that indicates ‘full’ or ‘low’ and the oil line in relation to this spot. Be sure to pull the dipstick out and wipe it back off before putting it back in; this will give you an accurate reading.

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Synthetic and Hybrid Synthetic Oils

Oil became an ever more precious commodity with the advent of the Industrial Age, and since the early 1900s, with the mainstream production of the combustion engine, mineral oil has been necessary for all kinds of day to day errands, travel, and jobs. Because engine manufacturers realized long ago that the world’s oil supply would not last forever, they began research on synthetic oil. Though most owners of cars, boats, or machinery still use mineral oil today, synthetic oil and hybrid synthetic oil have become available to the general public. Synthetic oil is oil that is created with no mineral oil, and despite popular belief, it works just as well as mineral oil in most machinery (though you shouldn’t switch between mineral and synthetic). Hybrid synthetic oil contains both synthetic and mineral oil, an example of this would be Evinrude XD50 oil used for outboard motors.

The main difference between synthetic, hybrid synthetic, and mineral oil is cost; in general synthetic oil is the most expensive followed by hybrid synthetic and then mineral oil.

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Smoking Yamaha Engines

Now and then your Yamaha outboard motor will produce an excessive amount of smoke while it’s starting up, and can draw unwanted and chiding attention from other boaters at the marina. For certain older outboard motors, most often the cause is due to an incorrect gasoline/oil ratio if the engine uses premixes. This can be corrected by simply adjusting your premixed ratio, adding more gasoline. It’s also a good idea to check the plug caps, fuel pumps, and valves. Also be sure to check the oil level in your outboard motor, and change the oil if necessary using Yamaha oil approved for your engine type.

If your outboard continues to smoke despite these fixes, consult a licensed maintenance technician who can diagnose more serious problems.

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Importance of Using Outboard Motor Oil

I’ve been asked several times whether or not it’s okay to use the standard auto oil in your outboard engine; the answer is a bit hazy. It is possible for the outboard engine to run off standard automobile oil, however, you wouldn’t want to do it for long. The problem is regular oil doesn’t contain the rust inhibitors which prevent marine engines from accumulating rust. In addition, it causes a lot more wear on an engine to operate in a marine environment versus on a relatively flat surface like a road, and normal oils aren’t formulated to withstand that kind of punishment.

The National Marine Manufacturers Association has introduced multiple tests to probe the quality of oil for marine engines, and as it turns out, only marine engine oil is strong enough to withstand the stress. Thus, if you’re in a situation where you absolutely need to use your boat and don’t have marine engine oil on hand… it’s okay, but afterward it’s best to flush your engine and replace the oil. There’s still risk involved regardless.

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The First Jet Ski Ride of the Year

When starting a jet ski after the winter months have ended, there are a number of precautions to be aware of beforehand. First you should take the jet ski out of storage before you intend to use it and check the engine. If you stored the jetski with fuel in the engine, add a fuel cleaner and a fuel stabilizer before starting it up. You will also want to change the engine oil, ensuring you use the appropriate type; ie. Yamalube 2W oil. Consult the owner’s manual for more information about the specific type of oil needed for your engine. Also be sure to change the oil filter and drain the pump oil, and add grease to all seals and bearing fittings.

When putting your jet ski away a few months down the road, be sure to clean the exterior, seat, and windshield to prevent corrosion and staining.

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